Astana, Kazakhstan: the space station in the steppes | World news | The Guardian The Observer Astana, Kazakhstan: the space station in the steppes The futuristic city in Kazakhstan is just the latest in the growing phenomenon of a capital from zero The Bayterek tower, designed by president Nursultan Nazarbayev, stands at the centre of Astana's main avenue Photograph: Antoine Lambroschini/AFP/Getty Images The Observer Astana, Kazakhstan: the space station in the steppes The futuristic city in Kazakhstan is just the latest in the growing phenomenon of a capital from zero Saturday 7 August 2010 20.59 EDT First published on Saturday 7 August 2010 20.59 EDT Share on Messenger Close "Peas and beans! Peas and beans!" The famous Japanese architect was in his office, high in a Tokyo tower, its walls crowded with framed honours and diplomas. Assistants of exceptional beauty shimmered in with tea, but what he wanted to talk about was pulses. Rising prosperity in China would lead to rising meat consumption, and in turn a global protein crisis. It was the greatest problem, he said, facing mankind today.

The solution lay in Kazakhstan , the vast former Soviet republic, for whose president the architect, Kisho Kurokawa, was masterplanning a new capital. This country, to the south of Russia, stretches from the eastern edge of Europe almost to Mongolia. For Kurokawa it offered ample opportunity for growing peas and beans, and – in a symbolic way – his plan would help. It was based on the interweaving of city and nature, with swaths of green between the buildings. It represented an idea of interdependence of which pulse-growing on an immense scale would be the practical outcome. This meeting was in 2001, and Kurokawa died in 2007, but his city is now there, more or less following his plan. There are plenty of parks and trees. Called Astana, it is the world's latest example of a rare but persistent type, the capital from zero. It is in a line that includes St Petersburg, Washington DC, Canberra, Ankara and Brasilia and like them it provokes a question: can a city, in all its teeming complexity, really be planned?

Or does the attempt lead only to a synthetic simulacrum, a kind-of city that is not quite the real thing? To look at, Astana is so strange that it has one grasping for images. It's a space station, marooned in an ungraspable expanse of level steppe, its name (to English speakers) having the invented sound of a science fiction writer's creation. It's a city of fable or dream, as recounted by Marco Polo to Kublai Khan. Except it's not quite so magical: it's also like a battery-operated plastic toy, all whirring noises and flashing colours, of a kind sold by the city's street vendors. Astana's ornaments include a 62-metre-high silver pyramid, designed by British architects Foster + Partners, giant gold-green cones and a gold orb resting on a structure of erupting white steel. At night its buildings go purple, pink, green and yellow. Astana's latest, most technically ambitious addition is a 150-metre-high translucent tent, also by Lord Foster . Called Khan Shatyr, a single leaning mast props its roof, which offers shelter from a harsh climate to a shopping and entertainment complex underneath.

It follows a familiar Foster strategy, to be seen in the Great Court of the British Museum, or his airports at Stansted, Hong Kong and Beijing, which is to create an impressively engineered roof – a thing to be looked at and admired but not inhabited – hovering over a lower, less ordered, zone where the activity of the buildings, in this case shops and theme-park rides, takes place. This strategy, derived from the geodesic domes which the visionary American designer Buckminster Fuller once proposed throwing over whole cities, makes for striking architecture but also for awkward clashes where the two zones meet. Top and bottom seem to be different worlds. Khan Shatyr opened last month with an extravagant celebration which coincided with the 70th birthday of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is the beginning and end of everything that happens in Astana. The building is there "because the idea came from the president", says its German-born manager: that there were four other malls within a square kilometre "didn't matter for him". The gold orb on the white steel tower, which signifies the egg laid annually on the tree of life by the mythical bird Samruk, was designed by Nazarbayev himself.

When Nazarbayev commissioned Foster to design his Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, he told them he wanted it pyramid-shaped, which may be the first and only time a client has told the mighty Foster what a building should look like, and been obeyed. Such cities are often the work of a single strong man. There is a museum of the founder in Astana, as there are of Kemal Atatürk in Ankara and President Kubitschek in Brasilia, pharaonic insurance against the afterlife that contains such things as Nazarbayev's grandfather's seal of office as a local judge. There is the president's palace, which stands on a long axis linking the two Foster works, the tent and the pyramid, and the golden orb. The palace is a version of the White House, improved by the addition of a blue dome. Also by its dominating location: the American original is placed off-centre from Washington's Mall, signifying a separation of powers that is not quite the Kazakh style. The common view of Nazarbayev, among those western politicians who have one, is that he is by some distance the best of the extremely bad bunch running the former Soviet republics of central Asia.

Margaret Thatcher has written a foreword to Nazarbayev's book The Kazakhstan Way, praising him for throwing off "the Soviet yolk [sic]". He established himself as a reformer in the 1980s, enough for Gorbachev to ask him, unsuccessfully, to be prime minister of the Soviet Union. The west was also extremely grateful to him for giving up his ballistic missiles when the collapse of the Soviet Union left him the master of the world's fourth-largest nuclear arsenal. Kazakhstan may rank 142nd in the world press freedom index, and 120th in the corruption perception index, and he may win elections and referendums with suspiciously high votes of 91% and 95%, but – goes the pro-Nazarbayev argument – nobody else could have stabilised his country's potentially explosive ethnic combinations, and ridden the violent post-Soviet economic storms. This argument is set out in Nazarbayev and the Making of Kazakhstan, an eloquent, if oily, book by the British former minister Jonathan Aitken.

Among its gems is a description of the romance between the president and his future wife, which flourished after an accident at a steel works: "While the flames of the blast furnace were damped down, the fires of love ignited." Aitken reports how his subject, as a young champion of steelworkers' rights, was scathing about both grandiose building projects and the decision to locate a steel plant in a site with an appalling climate. Yet he chose to build Astana, which can fairly be called grandiose, in a place that had been notable previously for its Soviet penal colonies and where the temperature runs from -40C to 40C (-40 to 104F). His logic was that the previous capital, Almaty, was too close to China, too congested, and prone to earthquakes.One can guess that, as for other rulers, building a new capital gave Nazarbayev a place he could control, made on his own terms. In keeping with his status as a better-than-average dictator, this is done subtly: Astana is not littered with statues and images of its maker, and when his followers suggested that it should be named after him, he modestly demurred.

(Although the somewhat neutral "Astana" – it means "capital" – might indicate that the space is being kept open for a renaming in the future.) Instead you hear, again and again, that things are the way they are "because the president wants it", which is delivered as a sufficient and unarguable statement. The shopping centre manager says it, as does the waiter serving horse steak. President Medvedev of Russia said that Nazarbayev "has given this city not only his work but also his soul". He wanted the city, and he specified its monuments in detail. He had his government officials, who initially left their families in more hospitable Almaty, shipped in. David Nelson, of Foster + Partners, describes long design meetings with the president: "He had thought about the building. That's what's impressive." What he wanted he got, thanks partly to oil revenues from the distant Caspian Sea, which Nazarbayev claimed for Kazakhstan in a protracted haggle with Boris Yeltsin – closing the deal with the help of vodka and a map doodled on a napkin, which is now in the Museum of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Like Gulf cities, Astana floats on an exhalation of petrodollars. Like Gulf cities and new Chinese cities such as Shenzhen, Astana inspires wonder that it is there at all; but while having some buildings of eye-aching ugliness, it has a greater sense of order. At street level in Dubai all is congestion. Here it is trimmed hedges, well-behaved traffic, well-kept paving and a complete lack of litter, or of visible signs of prostitution, drug-taking or beggary. It most resembles the controlled cleanliness of Singapore. The world's most famous Kazakh is the fictional Borat, but people in Astana are nothing like him. Except, perhaps for a taxi driver who growled like a tomcat whenever he saw a woman. In general Astanans are placid and dignified. They gather in the hour or so around dusk, when the hammering heat of the day gives way to deliciously balmy air, and promenade in the city's grand avenue. Children career over the pavements in electric cars like unfenced dodgems, while everyone gasps obediently at the pre-programmed fountain displays.

The avenue is decorated with topiary giraffes and elephants, and vast swirling carpets of brightly coloured bedding plants. There are artificial trees, made of steel rods, blossoming with pink or orange lights and the plastic roof of Khan Shatyr now joins the display, lit from within with a spectrum of disco colours. Sam Cooke's Wonderful World plays from the shrubberies. The place offers childish delights, laid on by the unseen hand of a benevolent daddy. There is not, yet, much more to Astana than this. It doesn't have bohemian quarters, or a rich nightlife, or hidden surprises. It feels sedated. The striking architecture is combined with a lack of excitement in the street life, as if the design of buildings were a cipher for risk and drama. These are very early days, of course, and over the decades Astana might mature into something different. The capital of Kazakhstan is Astana What's the capital of Kazakhstan? Today the capital of Kazakhstan is Astana. During its history Kazakhstan had more than one capital. Let's start our list from the latest to the first. Astana literally means Capital in Kazakh language.

It's the word primarily borrowed from Persian, meaning a place where the court is seated (capital city). It is the second largest city in Kazakhstan, after Almaty. It is located in north-central part of Kazakhstan, just under 1000 km (600 m) north from the last capital. 1997 was a lucky year for Astana. December the 10th of that year it became the capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Then it was called Akmola, the name that the city had got with the collapse of the USSR. The city carried the name until May the 6th 1998. That's when Akmola got a new name of Astana. June 10, 1998 it was internationally presented as the new capital of the new Kazakhstan. And now within a very short time it has got a very new face lift. From an ordinary soviet looking city it is turning into a modern XXI century city. Baiterek Tower in Astana What was the capital of Kazakhstan before Astana, i.e. before 1997?

Alma-Ata became the capital of Kazakhstan after the construction of the Turksib railway that connected Central Asia with Siberia. It was the capital of Kazakhstan for 68 years from 1929-1997 throughout Kazakhstan's soviet and a bit of its new history during independence. Then called Alma-Ata had started as the capital of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Kazakh ASSR). In 1936 it became the capital of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (Kazakh SSR). Since the end of the Soviet era the name of the city changed to Almaty and it stayed as the capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan until December 1997. Although it had lost its status as the capital more than 10 years ago now, it still is a major financial and cultural centre. It is situated in the south-east of the country, only about 300 km away from Kyrgyzstan and Chinese borders. Courtesy of Susan S. What was the Kazakhstan capital before Almaty 1925 was a very important year in Kazakhstan history.

It is the year when Kyrgyz ASSR (Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, present-day Kazakhstan) was renamed Kazakh ASSR (Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic). The city of Akmechet was renamed Qyzylorda (Kyzyl Orda) and chosen as the capital of the new Kazakh ASSR. It is sitituated on the route of Syr Daria River, the river that starts in Tyan Shan Mountains and flows into the Aral Sea. View The Kazakhstan Capitals in a larger map The first Kazakhstan Capital In 1920 Orenburg became the capital of the Kyrgyz ASSR (Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, present-day Kazakhstan) within Russia. When that Kyrgyz ASSR was renamed Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1925, Orenburg joined Russia. That's when Kyzyl-Orda became the new capital.

Astana | national capital, Kazakhstan | Britannica.com national capital, Kazakhstan Alternative Titles: Akmola, Akmolinsk, Aqmola, Celinograd, Tselinograd Related Topics Atyrau Astana, ( Kazakh: “Capital”) , formerly (until 1961) Akmolinsk or (1961–92) Tselinograd or (1992–98) Aqmola, city, capital of Kazakhstan . Astana lies in the north-central part of the country, along the Ishim River , at the junction of the Trans-Kazakhstan and South Siberian railways. Presidential Palace in Astana, Kazakh. © Galoff/Shutterstock.com It was founded in 1824 as a Russian military outpost and became an administrative centre in 1868. Its population had reached 33,000 when it was made an oblast (province) centre in 1939.

The city’s importance was greatly enhanced during the Soviet period by the government’s Virgin and Idle Lands Campaign of the mid-1950s—Tselinograd was Russian for “City of the Virgin Lands”—and by the city’s role as capital of a kray (region) that united the five northern provinces of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in 1960–65. There was much new construction and the establishment of various research and higher educational institutions (teacher training, agriculture, medicine, and engineering and construction). The city’s name was changed to Aqmola (“White Grave”) in 1992 following Kazakhstan’s independence. In 1994 the Kazakh government resolved to transfer the national capital from Almaty to Aqmola, a process completed in 1997, and the city’s name was again changed the following year. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev spent vast sums of the country’s oil profits on a drastic expansion and reconstruction of Astana. The government hired Japanese architect Kurokawa Kishō to design the plan for Astana’s new broad avenues and blue-and-gold buildings, including the Presidential Palace.

Nazarbayev also employed British architect Sir Norman Foster to design the new Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, a 203-foot- (62-metre-) high pyramid that includes, among other things, a library and an opera house. Much of the city’s population is employed by the railways. Various types of agricultural machinery are produced. Pop. (2009) 613,006; (2012 est.) 742,918. Learn More in these related articles: in Kazakhstan Astana city · Kazakhstan travel and tourism blog No comments · Posted by Sergei Rzhevsky in Architecture , Cities , Travel December 10, 1997, Astana received the status of the capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan. After this, the city experienced an unprecedented in the countries of the former USSR rapid growth. A lot of modern architectural and urban planning projects came to life here. The population increased from 270 thousand people in 1996 to 853 thousand in 2015.

The territory of the city greatly expanded to an area of ​​over 700 square km because of the construction of a new administrative and business center and other neighborhoods nearby. Photos by: Ilia Afanasieff . Times Of Oman :: Travel: Explore the beauty of Kazakhstan’s capital city #Travel: Explore the beauty of #Astana, #Kazakhstan’s capital city. Astana is a capital city brimming with optimism and energy, expanding and eager to catch the world’s attention. The capital of Kazakhstan, the largest Central Asian country and a former Soviet Republic, Astana is a young city that is home to a fascinating array of international and modern architectural styles and an equally fascinating, multicultural population. Astana hasn’t always been the capital of Kazakhstan; prior to 1997 the capital was Almaty, a city in the southeast, but in 1994, just three years after the country gained independence from the Soviet Union, the government decided to relocate the capital. The city of Akmola, set in a picturesque location in the northern part of the country with a river running through it, surrounded by farmland and big open skies, was chosen.

On December 10, 1997 Akmola became the capital; six months later, in June 1998, it was renamed Astana, the Kazakh word meaning “The Capital.” In the years since, Astana has grown and flourished as a modern, planned capital, reflecting the optimistic vision of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been in power since 1989. The population has more than tripled from around 270,000 in Akmola in 1996 to over 835,000 now. The accelerated pace of development has resulted in numerous eye-catching buildings and monuments. Astana is peppered with many landmark buildings and vast green spaces. During the summer months, lush grass, trees, and flowers line almost every street. The buildings feature an eclectic mix of architectural styles, from fortress-like Russian architecture, to cutting edge glass creations, along with buildings and monuments that emulate international landmarks, such as the Arc de Triomphe, glass pyramid, and the Presidential Palace, which appears to be a more opulent version of the White House in Washington, DC.

Across the river from the Presidential Palace sits the 62 metre high glass pyramid, home to the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation. It was built on the orders of President Nursultan Nazarbayev for the tri-annual Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, the first of which was held in 2003, and the most recent this June. It has prayer rooms for all the world’s major religions, a cultural museum, a library and a research centre. Across the street there are a few other impressive structures, including the beautiful Khazret Sultan Mosque; the 91 metre high Kazakh Eli Monument, built to celebrate the capital’s 10th anniversary; the Independence Palace, which is a modern convention centre; and the Kazakhstan History Museum, where the country’s rich history of nomadic culture on the Silk Road is on display. Across the river, Astana’s downtown, reminiscent of cities like Dubai and Hong Kong, is home to many futuristic buildings.

An unusual landmark, Khan Shatyr, is a shopping mall that doubles as the world’s largest tent, and there are international offices, glass towers that curve and shine in the sunlight, standing tall and visible from afar, that suggest Astana is a boomtown where the resource rich Kazakh economy is attracting many foreign investors along with local businessmen who see the city as a place full of opportunity. The centrepiece, the modern capital is Baiterek Tower, a 97 metre high observation tower, styled to look vaguely like a white tree trunk holding a round, golden globe, alluding to a Kazakh myth about a Samruk bird which laid a golden egg. Astana is home to several important cultural venues, including the elegant Greco-Roman styled opera house, which is the biggest in the region, and the Kazakhstan Central Concert Hall, another impressive example of the city’s love of modern designs. The concert hall was designed to take the shape of a dombra, a type of Kazakh lute. There are also several universities, a 30,000-seat sports stadium, and cycling and skating centres.

Though now many of the buildings in the older neighbourhoods of Astana are rundown, these parts of the city are worth exploring as the Soviet-style rectangular, efficient, and industrial buildings show just how far the rest of the city has come. Here you will also find a stunning gold-domed, whitewashed Assumption Cathedral, an orthodox cathedral that was built in 2010, along with the city’s only synagogue, Beit Rachel, built in 2004. From an architectural perspective, Astana is truly fascinating. It’s an unexpected blend of styles that somehow come together to create a city that both pays tribute to its origins on the vast, open Kazakh Steppes, while keeping a focused on the future. The wheels of progress are apparent in the plethora of cranes hovering over construction sites, as Astana prepares to play host to Expo 2017, building the expo venues and new facilities and hotels to accommodate visitors and participants. As interesting and eclectic as the skyline, Astana’s residents are another reflection of the diversity and changing landscape of the country.

According to the 2014 census, approximately 65% of the inhabitants are ethnic Kazakhs, 24% are Russians, 3% are Ukrainian, 2% are Tartars, 2% are Germans and other ethnic groups, including Poles, Belarusians, Uzbeks and Koreans. This mosaic of people offers some of the greatest possible people-watching, and over the years, as people are intermarried, there are ever more interesting faces. In Astana, it is a pleasure to sit in a cafe or wander through one of the city’s shopping centres and simply watching the menagerie of residents going about their lives. If you are able to attend a cultural event in the city, you’ll have the opportunity to see the local people dressed in their respective traditional costumes. Every year more and more of the country’s citizens migrate to Astana in search of jobs and business opportunities, and there are increasingly more migrants from neighbouring countries, along with investors from overseas, further adding to the city’s cultural meiliu. A visit to the capital of Kazakhstan offers a wonderful opportunity to experience both ancient and modern culture, in a part of the world a bit off the beaten tourist track.

As the city continues to grow and evolve, it is an especially exciting time to explore. As President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said, “Today Astana is the centre of a modern history of Kazakhstan. On the example of Astana it is possible to judge development of all our state. Through Astana we have opened new Kazakhstan to the global world. But, first of all, in a new fashion we have opened this city for ourselves, for the Fatherland.” To get in touch with the reporter [email protected] Astana: The world's weirdest capital city - CNN.com Astana: The world's weirdest capital city By Daisy Carrington, for CNN Updated 2:30 PM ET, Fri July 13, 2012 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. Photos: Astana: A city in the steppes A city in the steppes – Astana became the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997. Much of its modern architecture is striking in its scale and design, especially in contrast to the vast, open steppes that surround it.

Hide Caption 1 of 8 Photos: Astana: A city in the steppes Baiterek: Astana's 'Tree of Life' – The 100-meter-tall tower has been compared to a giant lollipop and is meant to evoke the local legend of the "Tree of Life". It was based on a sketch by President Nursultan Nazarbayev who has been instrumental in the development of Kazakhstan since coming to power in 1991. Hide Caption 2 of 8 Photos: Astana: A city in the steppes The Palace of Peace – The 60-meter-tall Palace of Peace and Reconciliation was designed by archietcture firm Norman Foster and Partners. Hide Caption Photos: Astana: A city in the steppes Keeping the 'peace' – Inside the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation. Hide Caption 4 of 8 Photos: Astana: A city in the steppes Central Concert Hall – "Nazarbayev used to joke that the building was right in front of his residence, and that the project's construction site - and us, of course - were always under his control," says architect Manfredi Nicoletti who designed the Central Concert Hall.

Hide Caption 5 of 8 Photos: Astana: A city in the steppes Shabyt Palace of Art – The Shabyt Palace of Art is the most remarkable part of the Kazakh National University of Arts. Hide Caption Photos: Astana: A city in the steppes Presidential palace – The presidential palace was designed to resemble the White House in Washington D.C. Hide Caption 7 of 8 Photos: Astana: A city in the steppes The world's largest tent – Astana's newest building is the Norman Foster-designed Khan Shatyr, a shopping mall that doubles as the world's largest tent. Hide Caption Astana became capital of Kazakhstan in 1997 City is becoming known for striking modern architecture President of Kazakhstan has played large role in shaping the capital There is something mirage-like about Kazakhstan's capital Astana. Little surrounds the city for 1,200 kilometers, save a handful of provincial towns dotted across the world's largest steppe, a flat, empty expanse of grassland. Shooting up from this void is a mass of strangely futuristic structures. The newest of these is the Norman Foster-designed Khan Shatyr , a shopping mall that doubles as the world's largest tent.

Foster was also the architect behind the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, a 60-meter-tall glass pyramid. There's also the Central Concert Hall, which from above looks like a budding flower, a flying saucer-shaped circus, a presidential palace designed to replicate the White House, and Baiterek, a 100-meter-tall tower that has drawn comparisons to a giant lollipop. Yet just 15 years ago the city didn't really exist at all. In 1997 Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev moved the capital from Almaty in the southeast of the country to the newly-named Astana (previously it was called Akmola), which was then an empty patch of land by the Ishim River best known as a former gulag prison camp for the wives of Soviet traitors. JUST WATCHED Astana: Kazakhstan's rising capital 02:20 Today the bulging, science fiction-like skyline has started to earn the country some international recognition. Neil Billett, a managing director and partner at Buro Happold, the engineering consultants that partnered with Foster's firm on the Khan Shatyr and the Palace of Peace, lauds the local architects' progressive thinking.

"They do quite like a challenge, and they do organize themselves to get on with it in a way that's quite refreshing," he says. "These projects would have taxed the mind of many a high-end contractor, and in Kazakhstan, they have to address the same problems in a much harder climate." Send in your photos from Kazakhstan The capital's climate does make construction much more complicated. In the winter months temperatures can fall to minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit), making it the second coldest capital city in the world. In the summer, the mercury can reach up to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). According to George Keliris, a structural engineer at Buro Happold, this temperature variance proved particularly challenging when constructing the Palace of Peace. "We had to allow a system that relieved the stress and let the structure breathe," he says. The solution they came up with was to lock down one corner of the pyramid, while placing the remaining corners on bridge bearings. Though common with bridges, such bearings are practically unheard of with entire buildings. "Basically, it's on roller skates," says Keliris.

"Because of the climate, (the structure) was bound to be futuristic." From a distance, Astana's architecture looks disparate, however a strong Kazakh theme runs through it all. Baiterek is meant to evoke the local legend of the "Tree of Life"; the story has a golden egg, and the building is topped with a golden orb. The shape of the Central Concert Hall was purposefully made to resemble a traditional Kazakh instrument, known as a dombra. Since it became the country's capital, Astana's population has more than doubled to 750,000. Despite this urban growth the size of the new buildings can still seem excessively large. The Central Concert Hall is one of the largest in the world, and seats 3,500 spectators, while the Astana Arena seats 30,000. However, according to Serik Rustambekov, a local architect, the reach of these projects matches the local way of thinking. "You need to understand the Kazakh background to get a better picture of our world view. We're a nomadic civilization that developed over thousands of years in the vast expanse of Eurasia.

Free space is more impressive to the Kazakh mindset than the type of congestion found in many European centers." Numerous architects from across the world have had a hand in shaping the new capital's skyline, but the one man who has had the greatest impact in the city's transformation is President Nazarbayev. Manfredi Nicoletti, whose Rome-based firm, Studio Nicoletti, designed the Central Concert Hall , confirms that Nazarbayev was very hands-on in the structure's implementation. "He used to joke that the building was right in front of his residence (the Presidential Palace), and that the project's construction site -- and us, of course -- were always under his control." In many ways, Astana looks like a vanity project for Nazarbayev. At the top of Baiterek, which grew from a sketch Nazarbayev did himself, visitors can touch his gilded handprint, and each year, the city's anniversary celebrations happen to coincide with his birthday. Nazarbayev's advocates, however, argue that Astana isn't a symbol of his ego, so much as his ambition for the Kazakh nation.

One of Nazarbayev's strongest supporters has come in the unlikely form of Jonathan Aitken, a former British politician, who wrote a recently published biography of the president based on 23 hours of personal interview, and a retrospective of the country. "While I'm sure (Nazarbayev) does have a large ego, it's more of an 'I love the country'-centred ego, not an I-centred ego," says Aitken. Aitken equates Nazarbeyev with the type of patrons that dominated 18th century Europe, in particular, Louis XIV. "Just as Versailles and parts of Paris were all created by one man's vision, so too was Astana," he says. The city's futuristic design shows Kazakhstan's ambition and desire to distance itself from the Soviet legacy that has marred many of the surrounding Central Asian nations. "Architecture always represents the development of the state, of technology and of culture," notes Rustambekov.

"As Astana is positioning itself as the center of Eurasia, a place where East meets West, a mixture of styles is quite appropriate." Astana, Kazakhstan – Moroccan Encounter | admin There being no direct flight from Istanbul to our next destination, Astana, Kazakhstan, we left late in the evening of October 11 for Almaty, where we would connect with a flight to Astana. After a two hour layover following the three hour flight from Istanbul, we arrived at the capital city of Astana. Astana has been the capital of Kazakhstan only since 1997. Like Brasilia replacing Rio de Janeiro in 1960 and Abuja replacing Lagos in 1991, Astana became the capital based on the premise that a new administrative center in a planned city with a more strategic location could better serve the needs of the government. As a result, we found ourselves in a very glitzy environment with modern gleaming buildings of glass and steel. Astana, which means “capital” in Kazakh, replaced the name Akmola, the name given to the city in 1992 when the Soviet name Tselinograd was dropped.

Kazakhstan became an independent county in December 1991 after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Though it had been associated with the Soviet Republic since 1920, the territory had actually been a part of the Russian Empire since the middle of the nineteenth century. Subjugation to the rule of the Tsars in effect ended the historic nomadic lifestyle of the Kazakhs as they settled into a more conventional pattern of residential life. In 1936 Kazakhstan became a full Soviet republic, also called Kazakh SSR, and in fact was the largest Soviet republic except for Russia. Today Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world geographically, but has a population of only nineteen million people. The area is roughly four times the size of Texas, but the population is only three times the urban population of the Dallas – Ft. Worth area. The population density is only 16 people per square mile, placing it in 226th place among the sovereign states of the world with regard to that statistic. Much of the country is a part of the great Eurasian steppe, an ecoregion of grasslands, savannas and shrub-lands.

Kazakhstan has the largest and strongest performing economy in Central Asia. Supported by rising oil output and prices, Kazakhstan’s economy grew at an average of 8% per year over the past decade. One indicator of its strong economy is the fact that Kazakhstan was the first former Soviet Republic to repay all of its debt to the International Monetary Fund, 7 years ahead of schedule. One indicator of the importance of the petroleum industry is that many students inquired as to whether or not we offered courses in petroleum engineering. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the communist era leader of Kazakhstan, became the country’s first president in 1991. He has subsequently triumphed in several elections, the last being in 2005. Afterwards, he declared himself president for life. To my question to a student as to whether Nazarbayev was a good president or not, he replied, “Yes, he is good.” However, I did notice him looking over his shoulder as he replied! Because of the overnight flight from Istanbul and the three hour time difference, we did not arrive at our hotel, the Radisson, until about 11:30, only an hour or so before my first meeting.

After an orientation briefing we set up for our first “fair” which lasted from 2:00 until 6:00 in the afternoon. Operating much like a trade fair, 21 different universities from the U.S. had tables set up, from which representatives provided information concerning their schools in an effort to persuade interested students to consider enrolling in available programs in which the students might be interested. Under the auspices of the non-profit organization, EducationUSA, this first event on Sunday afternoon involved students from any school in the Astana area. Additionally, there were a number of people who already had a degree that were interested in graduate programs at the various institutions. I never saw a figure on the number of students attending the first event, but it was a baptism by fire for Denise and me. We were engaged almost the entire time with students bombarding us with questions about what we had to offer, and of course the most oft-asked question, “Do you have any scholarships and grants”? Though we had shipped a number of brochures and favors such as JSU key chains to be given to the students, we did a very poor job of conserving our resources at the beginning and they all seemed to evaporate.

We did learn how to manage them better during the week. On Monday we had “mini-fair” visits lasting 90 minutes at three different high schools in the city, and a visit to a fourth high school on Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday morning, the tour organizers provided a two-hour tour of the city for us. We were impressed with all the new buildings and public spaces such as an art museum and new malls that have been developed in the last ten years or so. About five o’clock we departed Astana for the second city on our tour, Karaganda. Bus transportation was provided for all the participants but if we had known all the facts, perhaps had a AAA report on road conditions, we might have opted to fly. Supposedly the trip would take about three hours. What we did not know is that approximately 1/3 of the distance would be on roads, described by the tour director, as “under construction.” I grew up in a time and place in which we often traveled on dirt roads. The first couple of hours of this trip was by far the greatest distance I had traveled on unpaved roads in a long, long time.

It was less than pleasant for a couple of hours, a lot of bumps and jostling, but once we got back to the highway that was in fairly good condition, the improved situation was so much better that we tended not to dwell on the earlier experience. The additional time did give us another late night, an 11:00 p.m. arrival with an 8:00 a.m. starting time on Wednesday. We need some serious reprogramming since we have been operating on a retired schedule for several years. We had forgotten how much fun it is to be tied to a rigid schedule with serious expectations about where we need to be and when! Fred Kazakhstan to Host Expo 2017 on Future Energy - The Astana Times Kazakhstan to Host Expo 2017 on Future Energy By Nurlan Kapparov in EXPO 2017 on 27 March 2013 In 2017 the world’s eyes will be on a young nation with a bright future—Kazakhstan. A former Soviet Republic turned engine of economic prosperity, Kazakhstan and its capital city of Astana will host Expo 2017 on the theme of “Future Energy”.

This will be the first time that an international exhibition of this kind takes place on the territory of the former Soviet Union. The theme of Expo 2017, “Future Energy”, is well suited to the host country and the region it is leading toward a brighter, cleaner, more prosperous future. Kazakhstan is uniquely positioned to host this exhibition. As a significant oil producer, it is looking to the future and starting the process of greening its economy. Located in the strategically vital area between Europe and Asia, Kazakhstan has come a long way in the 20 years since it gained independence. When the Soviet Union fell apart, many wondered if Kazakhstan had the long-term viability necessary to establish itself as an independent country. In little more than two decades, it has begun the process of democratization and created a booming economy that has been named one of the world’s 20 Most Attractive Investment Destinations by the World Bank. It is now considered one of the world’s fastest growing economies (along with China and Qatar) and has benefited from over $160 billion in foreign investment since 1991.

As part of the next stage of the modernization process, Kazakhstan has committed to building a green economy and taken the initiative to create the “Green Bridge Partnership”. This partnership, which gained support at the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development in June last year, brings together governments, international organizations, and private businesses to find transnational solutions to sustainable growth. It is also intended to provide a platform to discuss and implement the best available green technologies and best green practices in Central Asia. And it is on this platform that Expo 2017 will be built. The exhibition is expected to attract five million visits. It will serve to highlight the energy and environmental issues facing Central Asia and, at the same time, attract the world’s best experts on energy efficiency technologies. Its physical structure will reflect the chosen theme. It will be hosted on a self contained site that will be fully self-sufficient in terms of energy. Each building will have solar cells and the site will be powered by its own wind farm. Participants will be able to travel around the site via sustainable transport and dine on organic food. Because the Expo tradition is built around innovation, Kazakhstan and Astana in particular make ideal hosts for Expo 2017.

As a brand new capital city that is leading an economic revolution in Central Asia, Astana’s Expo will allow visitors to experience the possibility of a future world with a cleaner, more secure energy supply. An exhibition on this scale will build international awareness of the energy and environmental challenges that need to be faced in the region. It will also attract some of the best expertise available in the world on subjects such as energy saving technologies and alternative energy solutions, including solar, wind and biomass. By hosting Expo 2017, Kazakhstan will leave its mark on the international environmental agenda. Hopefully, the impact will be long-term and will help find solutions to some of the pressing energy and environmental needs of the region. The article first appeared in Diplomatic Courier on March 23. The author is Minister of Environment Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan Most Recent Stories in EXPO 2017 Astana city, Kazakhstan overview, attractions, photos Astana night view Astana history Known as Akmolinsk (Kazakh akmola, “white tomb”) until 1961, Tselinograd (Celinograd) until 1997 Astana was founded in 1830 as a Cossack advanced post.

Later a small fortress grew into a town. In 19th century Akmola became an important geopolitical center of the region actually being the center of the whole district. Astana population reached 33,000 when the town received the status of oblast (region) center in 1939. Soviet Virgin and Idle Lands Campaign in the mid-1950s (Tselinograd is Russian for Virgin Lands City) and Astana city role as capital of the region that united the five northern oblasts of Kazakhstan in 1960-1965 greatly enhanced its importance. It led to much new construction and the setting up of various research and higher educational institutions in Astana city. Teacher training, agriculture, medicine, engineering and construction institutes were built in Astana. In 1992 the city was renamed into Akmola. The word “Akmola” in Kazakh language means “White Grave” or “White Sacred Place”. On May 6th, 1998, by Kazakhstan President’s decree the city Akmola was renamed into Astana.

Astana streets Author: Andrey Bogdanov Astana facts In 1997 Kazakhstan’s capital was moved to Astana city from Almaty to take advantage of Astana location as it is much more accessible to Russia and much smaller chance of earthquake. Russian city Orenburg was the first capital of Kazakhstan (Kirgizskaya ASSR in the RSFSR) from 1920. In 1925 the republic received the name Kazakhskaya ASSR, the capital was transferred to Kzyl-Orda. In 1927 the capital of Kazakhstan was again transferred, this time to Alma-Ata. In 1936 Kazakhstan was separated from RSFSR – Kazakhstanskaya SSR was formed. Officially Astana was declared the capital of Kazakhstan on December 10th, 1997. International presentation of Astana as a new capital took place on June 10th, 1998. The Capital Day is a state holiday. Astana city is becoming a new cosmopolitan western-style city with skyscrapers and offices of intercontinental oil corporations. The majority of Astana city population is employed in transport (railways).

Various types of agricultural machinery are also produced in Astana. Astana transport system Astana is a big highway juncture: Highways M36 Chelyabinsk - Almaty and A343 Astana - Petropavl cross the territory of the city. It is planned to construct Astaninsky high-speed light-rail transportation LRT (light metro, high-speed tram) as well as normal tram. There is a modern international airport in Astana city able to handle all kinds of jets. The airport is 16 km far from the city. Astana sceneries Author: Alex Yakon Astana features The location of Astana city is strategically advantageous crossroads of caravan ways which attracted inhabitants of the Steppe for a long time. Archeologists find objects which date back to Bronze Age, early Stone Age and Middle Ages. Among main historical objects within Astana there is the site of ancient settlement Bozok - a monument which was in function beginning in early Middle Ages (7th-8th centuries) till Kazakh Khanate epoch (15th-16th centuries). In 1999 on UNESCO decision Astana received the name - the City of Peace.

After the city received the status of the capital and special economic area “Astana - new city” was organized a lot of modern architectural projects have been carried out in the city. In spite of its status of the capital Astana still falls behind the former capital of Kazakhstan Almaty in its infrastructural resources. Almaty preserved its mentality of the capital keeping an unofficial status of the “southern capital”. Astana attractions There are four universities in Astana, Akmolinskaya regional philharmonic society, museums (historical and of local study, arts museum,), theaters (National opera and ballet theater named after K.Baiseitiva, Kazakh theater of music and drama named after K.Kuanyshbayev, Russian drama theater named after M.Gorky) and libraries. Also there is the Congress-Hall, Youth Palace and Presidential Culture Center. On July 6th, 2000, a fountain “Life Tree” was constructed after Azat Boyarlin’s design, it received the name “Chupa-Chups” due to the alike shape. On the four sides of the fountain there are animals figures - an ox, a horse, a camel and a ram.

Every figure of the animal has the head of a dragon - symbol of wisdom. The construction itself is rather of symbolic character, it reflects eternal life rotation. Among the main places of interest of Astana city are: Ak-Orda - the residence of Kazakhstan Republic President; Baiterek building - main symbol of Astana city; Independence Palace - the building where diplomatic and other international affairs take place; Palace of peace and concord - the building where Congresses of world and traditional religions leaders are held. Astana city of Kazakhstan photos Astana views Author: Alex Yakon The questions of our visitors Brian asks: Is it possible to travel overland from Astana to Omsk Russia as US citizen? Expert's answer: It is possible if you have all the documents (visas) required. There is regular train going from Karaganda (Kazakhstan) to Omsk (Russia) passing on its way Astana (Kazakhstan). The train number is 345f and it stops at Astana at 22:35 local time, departure at 23:06 every even day; the train arrives to Omsk at 10:51.

Frank asks: How far is Astana city to Karaganda city? Expert's answer: The distance between Astana and Karaganda cities is about 200 km. The comments of our visitors Yerzhan Worst climate I hate the weather in Astana. The climate is the worst of the Republic, the coldest winters and negative winds. Astana is a city without soul. Nothing here, only building, buildings and buildings. And very fat mosquito. I do not recommend to visit Astana. dauletbek

Question: Astana is the capital city of which former Soviet republic?
Answer: Kazakhstan